British iPhone Just Makes Us Want More Wi-Fi: Analysis

With Apple's announcement that it's bringing the iPhone to the United Kingdom in November, Jobs-ian nerds and still-smarting early adopters alike are wondering whether their brothers across the pond are getting a better deal. Between partnering with another exclusive carrier and offering somewhat second-rate EDGE network service, Apple is offering pretty much the same iPhone package we've had Stateside since June. Except for one caveat: The U.K. plan comes with the perk of 7500 free Wi-Fi hotspots already established throughout the country—something U.S. customers could hardly begin to dream of with the state of municipal wireless service here.

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Offering cost-free Wi-Fi access to customers makes sense in the U.K. because not even a third of Britain is covered by EDGE, says Michael Gartenberg, vice president of Jupiter Research, a tech analysis firm. Since Europe's cell networks tend to be faster and more sophisticated overall than those in the U.S., several overseas phone companies skipped over the slower 2.5G and went directly to 3G when cell networks first began to upgrade their broadband infrastructure, he says, leaving EDGE in the dust.

So while Steve Jobs may have disappointed by failing to introduce the rumored 3G iPhone today—that's for later next year, the Apple CEO said—he at least compensated by acknowledging the proliferation of Wi-Fi abroad. But couldn't all us iPhoners back home use an excuse for our touchscreen wonders to get a little giddyup? Doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon, what with the proliferation of pay-per-play wireless. Sure, you can piggyback on your neighbor or use any number of unauthorized and open access points, but that kind of Wi-Fi is unreliable at best.

After plans for free Wi-Fi across San Francisco and Chicago fell apart this summer, an interim solution—or at least a start—for iPhone users might be to offer Internet access via the Starbucks' T-Mobile hot-spot service, available at more than 4000 locations in the U.S. Sure, we pooh-poohed the cheesy deal between Apple and Starbucks with the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, but T-Mobile is the only other GSM carrier in this country, it offers all the Wi-Fi service in your local corporate coffeehouse, and Jobs is expected to announce an iPhone deal with them in Germany tomorrow.

But until Apple develops a carrier partnership with T-Mobile, there's little economic incentive for Starbucks or T-Mobile to offer a similar Wi-Fi deal to Apple users, Gartenberg says. In fact, such a move probably wouldn't sit well with AT&T, which has an exclusive partnership with Apple through at least 2009. Until then, you'll just have to live on the EDGE... —Wayne Ma